Best WP ecommerce Themes for your e-Store (2013)

Setting up an online store isn’t as easy as building a blog. For instance, the main difference between a “simple” blog and the online store is that the second needs a way to promote products with prices, discounts and more. An e-store also needs a shopping cart and possibly a way to login with a user account. All of this, is usually not available in a WordPress theme, but here are 2 great WP ecommerce themes for you, brought directly from the Elegant Themes Gallery.

But before we move into the WP ecommerce themes, there are some things I’d recommend doing before opening an e-store. Unless your business is already set and you just want to expand your clients online, always remember to do:

A research of the Market you want to cover

A research of the products available for your region

Prices and availability research

Competition

Average Selling Price (ASP)

What do I get from the Elegant themes portfolio?

When you’re looking for a WP ecommerce theme you need to consider very specific features included. SEO options are important, as always, however, for WP ecommerce themes the most important thing is the option to include a shopping cart – with a plugin, normally – without screwing the code. Additionally, you want to go for a layout that really helps you promote your products and the possibility to setup featured items, special discounts and more. You also need a feature to allow users to login and fill up their shopping cart, so it’s totally different to setting up a blog just for article and content creation.

The eStore Theme offers you a very elegant way to showcase your products on your e-store. Being a WP ecommerce theme, eStore allows you to easily setup your online store and integrate it with some of the most famous plugins (some of them are free) out there for WordPress including Simple paypal shopping cart and eShop. But probably the best thing about the eStore Theme is its very unique and highly stylish design. I haven’t seen any better theme than this at the moment.

If the eStore doesn’t fit you needs, then there’s Boutique. Boutique allows you to create another online store but this time the design is more likely to be oriented for cosmetics or children. Of course this doesn’t matter that much if you’re a tech savvy guy and you decide to give a makeover to the CSS Stylesheet, but if you’re afraid of the code, then it’s better to find a theme that matches the most to your needs. Again, Boutique allows you to integrate a plugin to create your online shop and it’s got wide compatibility.

Another great brand new WP eCommerce theme is Styleshop. The difference here is the great design that appeals to any kind of audience, especially if it’s targeted to something like beauty shops or anything related to styling, clothes, or elegant/modern things. Again, Styleshop allows you to integrate a plugin to create your online shop and it’s got wide compatibility.

Harmony is a theme dedicated for musicians, bands and similar niches. Because of this, it has the ability to handle songs, events and more, which make it a great theme for those looking to use their blog as a point of reunion and entertainment. It also allows you to upload great photo galleries and sell stuff. Harmony allows you to integrate a plugin to create your online shop and it’s got wide compatibility.

Take Home

Creating an e-Store is a little more complex than just creating a blog for content. However it is possible to achieve a great looking site with appealing products and services.

Just remember that creating the site is just the half of the project. You really need to spend time promoting your products to achieve sales, and even more important perhaps; you need to think and analyze your market before diving into it or you might be losing your time – and money – after all.

Elegant themes is one of the best options to chose your WP ecommerce themes. By the $39 initial price, you’ll get both themes and 76 more, and you can use them in an unlimited number of websites – even for your clients – without problems. So consider paying those $39 and get the most out of it on a yearly basis.

About Servando Silva

Comments

Hello,
I need some help here…I’m pretty new at this word press, I typically just like to purchase like a theme from my hosting company because it is just easier to use..not much work to it, but it is more expensive, plus, it is more plain as well. I am trying to have a storefront, and sell online items, and I need to know how can I use wordpress, and all the gadgets or add on themes to make it work, and look really nice on my site? Also, how can I remove the word- wordpress from my site? Thank you so much for your time, I really appreciate it.

Hello Gina.
Yes, with WordPress you can setup an store and it would look like the ones mentioned in my article. You just need a WordPress Blog and the ecommerce plugin to make it work.
However, if you’re not as tech-savvy and you want to make an stunning website, you can also use Squarespace.

Servando, Thank you so much for your prompt response!!! Ok, I know a little bit about computers…I just want to have a great online-store, with obviously the add to cart, and smooth checkout..and it seems that alot of things on the sites, you have to add buttons and so forth. What is your biggest suggestion on getting the correct check out buttons on there? Like the comment I read about woocommerce was a little problamatic on getting the add to cart button on there, what would be your suggesting to get this working correctly? Thank you so much.
Thanks for the suggestion on square space, it looks really nice, and effortless, but in the long run, it would cost a monthly fee, I think I want to economize as much as possible. Thank u

Hello gINA. more than correcting buttons and all, most of the ecommerce themes need plugins and need to be tuned so that they show exactly what you want. WordPress by itself is not an ecommerce platform, thus, you always need to tune things and install extra plugins aside from the template.

Aside from that,yeah, Squarespace will take a monthly fee (a little one), but if you host your wordpress blog you’ll need that do. You need to pay the domain, the host every month and even the templates or extra plugins, so as an initial investment Squarespace is usually cheaper and already gives you everything you need.

Hi there,
As a satisfied user of the elegant themes packages, I thought you might be interested in seeing a real world example of the eStore theme. I spent a lot of time getting our site Modern Furniture to look as good as it does now.
When I originally set out with this site, it was a difficult choice as to which wordpress theme to purchase. I really wished I could see some real world examples, and I hope this goes someway to showing what can be achieved.
Warmest Regards,
Stephen

Thanks Servando!
I am using WooCommerce together with the eStore theme from elegant themes. Like I said I expected that after installing the theme it would be more or less ready to use, like the advertised demo theme. However, I did have to put a significant amount of time into making it look like the demo theme. As far as I understand, out of the box, the advertised add to cart button does not work with woocommerce. You can see on my site that I have managed to replicate the demo add to cart button. It might seem silly, but this was one of the big selling points for us. I managed to replicate this button by using some custom css. Overall I’m really pleased with the eStore theme. WooCommerce has been great. Totally reliable, easy to configure, and chock full of options.
Best Wishes,
Stephen

Thanks for your fast response Stephen!
Yeah, actually, that’s something most people think when buying a theme. We’re all enthusiastic about it and when we finally install it without content, widgets and everything, it looks plain ugly and needs to be customized step by step.

Something I really like from the Genesis Framework (which has no ecommerce themes ATM), is that they give you an after-sales guide on how to replicate the demo website instead of leaving you alone.